Concern for the environment is a pre-eminent social issue for the decade of the 90's. Emissions from heating with corn pellets have been tested and labeled exempt by the Environmental Protection Agency. Other natural fuel such as wheat, rice, rye and soy beans for example burn equally as well and as clean as corn. Since natural grains burn cleanly without generating creosote, an oily residue, there is no need for a chimney. The burning of natural grain fuel generates emissions less than ten percents of the Environmental Protection Agency's standards for carbon dioxide. Such emissions release no other known harmful contaminants or hydrocarbon pollutants into the atmosphere.
Recent announcements by the OPEC Oil Cartel indicates new crude oil price increases foreshadowing what many experts are predicting may be the beginning of a new oil crises. Present oil, gas and coal reserves are being depleted rapidly. Although experts vary in their predictions as to when these fossil fuels will become exhausted, the consensus of expert opinion is that the supply of such fossil fuels will eventually be exhausted.
Corn, wheat, rye, rice and other natural bio-mass fuels are grown commercially in the United States as well as many other countries . In the United States, farmers have been paid subsidies not to raise certain farm products resulting in much of our cropland lying idle. The burning of bio-mass fuel in it's natural condition insures a home for agricultural products at a reasonable price thus smoothing out the elasticity curve for supply and demand.
Natural bio-mass fueled energy is both accessible and affordable to homes and industry. The costs and taxation of existing sources of energy continues to escalate necessitating the end user and taxpayer to seek out inexpensive alternative energy supplies.
A confining restriction of the present bio-mass and synthetic solid fuel burning industry is the repetitive requirement to shut down the system every twelve to twenty hours. This shut down is to remove a build up of a hard crustacous outer layer of ash associated with solid fuels known as a clinker. Unless removed, the residue of ash or clinker diminishes the flow of highly turbulent combustion air flow directed to the bio-mass fuel resulting in the flame being extinguished.
Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is to present a fuel system which eliminates and/or significantly reduces the need to periodically shut down the burning procedure to remove ash and the like in a convenient and efficient manner.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a specifically constructed firebox in such an aforementioned system which enables continuous ash disposal over a long time period such that short term interval periodic shutdown is, in essence, eliminated or reduced to the extent that it is no longer a drawback and to accomplish such in a cost effective and convenient manner.
The aforementioned objects of the present invention as well as other objects thereof are accomplished by the provision of a stationary firebox with a moving floor track which simultaneously forms a portion of the firebox on which combustion is supported and the means whereby the ash therefrom is automatically and sequentially removed therefrom.
These and other objects of the present invention are accomplished by the provision of a device for the improved burning of bio-mass and synthetic solid fuels comprising an outer chamber formed by a plurality of outer housing walls, a combustion firebox mounted in said outer chamber, means for feeding fuel to said firebox, said outer chamber further including means for supplying combustion air to said firebox and means for exhausting combustion gases from said outer chamber, said firebox including stationary side walls laterally spaced from each other in part forming a longitudinally extending trough-like combustion chamber having upstream and downstream ends thereof, said combustion chamber further defined by a stationary wall at said upstream end and a gate at said downstream end and a lower wall disposed between said firebox side walls, said gate having a lower edge positioned proximal to but vertically spaced from said lower wall, and means for longitudinally moving said lower wall between said firebox side walls from said stationary upstream wall towards and past said movable gate so as to continually remove ash from said firebox and deposit such ash into said outer chamber.